11/11/21
Oil and Gas Corporations are waging a Climate Disinformation Campaign on
Twitter during COP26
"When oil and gas companies took to Twitter during the first half of the
U.N.’s Glasgow climate conference, they often presented themselves as part
of the solution to climate change and talked about energy security.
In many ways, their messaging on social media provides a window into how
these companies want the public to see the future.
For example, while policymakers talk about a “low-carbon economy” –
indicating that while there will be carbon in our lives, it will be as low as it
can be – the tweets from some oil and gas accounts instead use the phrase
“lower carbon.” A “lower carbon” economy is a far more nebulous goal that
can involve continuing significant levels of fossil fuel use well into the future.
Social media is just the public face for these companies, many of which have
lobbyists at the climate conference. Behind the scenes, the industry
continues to invest in extracting fossil fuels that are driving climate change,
and its CEOs have made clear that fossil fuel production will continue for
decades to come.
Fossil fuel industry misdirection
In 2015, when a colleague and I first researched what key fossil fuel trade
groups were saying on Twitter about climate solutions during the landmark
COP21 summit in Paris, we found they were largely promoting a narrative
that the Obama administration’s climate policies lacked domestic support –
despite public opinion research indicating otherwise.
This time around, using the consumer insights software Brandwatch, I
studied recent English-language tweets from top oil, gas and coal producers
globally during COP26, as well as from the American Petroleum Institute and
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Executives from four oil companies, API
and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had been grilled by members of the
House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Oct. 28, 2021, about their
roles in the spread of misinformation about climate change.
Chart
The most common themes in Twitter posts by fossil fuel companies and
trade groups from Oct. 31 to Nov. 8, 2021, were focused on the energy they
provide.
Chart
In comparison to the fossil fuels industry, companies and business leaders
that have signed onto net-zero campaigns, like the Climate Pledge and Race
to Zero, talked in COP26 tweets from Oct. 31 to Nov. 8 largely about
commitments to take action on climate change.
The corporate accounts today present themselves as part of the solution –
for example, talking about renewable energy and electric vehicle charging
infrastructure. Low-carbon projects are only a small part of the oil
companies’ portfolios, though. And the same companies fueled the problem
while knowing the risks.
This subtle form of misinformation, which scholars have called “fossil fuel
solutionism,” involves cherry-picking data and talking points.
For example, a BP tweet saying that reducing methane emissions is key to
“slowing the rate of warming” omits an important point. While addressing
methane leaks from fossil fuel infrastructure is an important step, a
fundamental shift away from fossil fuels is considered crucial.
The International Energy Agency predicts upstream oil and gas investment
will increase by about 10% this year, though not to pre-pandemic levels,
while clean energy investments remain “far short of what will be required to
avoid severe impacts from climate change.”
The American Petroleum Institute in particular has been posting on themes
of affordable, reliable, American-made energy and concern over gas prices
while also claiming that restricting oil and gas drilling on federal land “would
be counterproductive to our shared goal of reducing emissions.” API’s
argument is that restrictions would increase use of coal and foreign imports.
Several posts employ a subtle shift in language to talk about technological
innovation and energy transition in terms of “lower carbon,” rather than the
more commonly heard discourse on “low carbon.” This shift appears to be
recent. In the past, the theme appeared in discussions of natural gas as a
“bridge fuel.”
The black box of digital advertising
These accounts are only one piece of the industry’s social media
ecosystem. The paid advertising footprint of oil and gas is much larger. It is
also harder to track, especially on Twitter.
According to research by the nonprofit think tank InfluenceMap, the industry
deploys Facebook ads at key political moments. For example, during Oct.
16-22, 2021, in the lead-up to the Congressional hearing with the oil CEOs
and the recent elections, ExxonMobil spent $565,099 on Facebook ads
targeting U.S. users.
Climate journalists Emily Atkin and Molly Taft found the lower-carbon theme
in fossil fuel advertising within recent political newsletters.
For example, related to the U.N. climate conference, ExxonMobil is
sponsoring the political news site The Hill’s energy and environment
newsletter, along with the American Petroleum Institute. Some researchers
refer to that as “fossil fuel corporate propaganda.” This amounts to a
strategy to enhance corporate legitimacy while at the same time downplay
the need for government regulation.
Part of a wider problem
The structure of online social networks is characterized by polarization and
echo chambers that allow misleading climate change content to spread.
An example is a tweet that got a lot of impressions at the start of COP26. It
was a post from conservative commentator Ben Shapiro containing a logical
fallacy in attempting to discredit the U.N.‘s climate work. Shapiro came in
third for average reach during week one of the summit within a sample of
climate change tweets, following only President Joe Biden and former
President Barack Obama.
Social media companies have been under scrutiny for facilitating the wide
spread of misinformation on several topics, including climate change.
In one analysis of Facebook pages, the environmental group Stop Funding
Heat found nearly 39,000 posts with misinformation over eight months on
195 pages known for blatant climate misinformation. It also found a 76.7%
increase in people interacting with those pages compared to the previous
year, suggesting Facebook’s algorithm was sharing the content widely.
Taking a cue from climate disinformation researchers, Twitter launched what
it calls “pre-bunks” – sending accurate messages out in search, explore and
trends lists. But it didn’t plan to stop people and bots posting climate
misinformation or label it as such. In the first 10 months of 2021, Twitter says
climate change was mentioned 40 million times on its channels.
Jill Hopke, Associate professor, DePaul University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative
Commons license. Read the original article."
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